I tried to get Gwen to do the tree climbing thing, since the Koolies can do it. She wanted to be kool. But, wasn't really her thing. She DOES jump a lot.

All of these pictures were taken shortly before Gwen proved (to me) her herding abilities. Most of you train your herding dog on sheep, ducks, cattle, livestock, right? Those are apparently too easy for Gwen.

The park we were at has many deer that are fairly comfortable around humans. We were watching some cross the road. Gwen was very interested in them. I watched Gwen watching the deer and slowly crept up on her. She moved forward a little and continued watching. At this point, I realized she might be more than a passive nature enthusiast.

She crept forward in a stalk-y mode. As the BF and I were moving to catch her, she jetted off towards the deer. We were telling her to come back, which didn't work, obviously. (We're working on her stay, recall, all of that.) At first we only saw about 5 deer, but as she ran towards them, more appeared. I saw about 15 white deer butts running away from Gwen. She rushed up to them and stayed about 10 feet away from them, 'herding' them to the other side of the field. As the deer disappeared into the woods, she came trotting back. Tongue out and a big grin on her face.

I might have to find some reindeer! Maybe I can have Gwen herd every herd-like animal and we can set a record!

I'm really hoping we can get her into some training programs this spring/summer. I feel like she would do so well in dog sports. If anything, I'm the one holding her back. And there just isn't the interest in this area. :/

I'll have to start taking more pictures since I figured out how to get them on here!

We went to the dog park today. We were surprised to find a couple of dogs there.

There was a HUGE Mastiff (Samson) and an adorable Aussie pup (Penny). The puppy reminded me of Merlin She was so soft and cute and Gwen loved playing with her. Samson was an extremely loving dog. His head came up to my boobs. I'm short, but still, he's a big boy. If it wasn't for the drool, I think he's a perfect dog.

Tried to get some pictures of Gwen and the dog together. Gwen was always moving so this was difficult.

Puppy creeping.

My foot compared to this monster dog's. He stepped on my foot and covered half of it.